Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Good Gadget, Bad Gadget?

I’m still deeply in love with my iPod. I haven’t quite got all my music loaded yet (the downside of a large CD collection), but being able to carry even what I do have done anywhere with me is fantastic.

Given that Chris Moyles is becoming increasingly annoying and in the absence of DAB in the car (and sorry I just ‘don’t do Radio 2), I wanted a way of linking my iPod to my car stereo. Or in fact any radio anywhere. So I now own one of these:

And after some tweaking around I’ve got it working reasonably satisfactorily in the car (obviously for legal reasons, only when I’m driving in the US), if I place the iPod in one particular place and don’t wave my arm around between it and the aerial.

At home though (obviously for legal reasons, only when my home has been transported Wizard of Oz style to the US) I still get major interference between the iPod and either one of my stereo systems. The only really good signal is achieved if I prop the iPod so it’s literally touching the wire aerial. So much for the 10-30ft abilities its spec boasted.